Web editor for daily local newspaper in Peterborough, UK, into web standards, usability and CSS, also enjoying fresh air whenever possible, listening to a lot of music and playing cricket.

Sunday, 30 March 2003

A beautiful sunny sunday afternoon. Been to cricket training and didn't do too bad, gonna have a pizza, write my blog and then get outside and enjoy that sunshine, before my week of deskbound, indoor activity begins! I suppose I could always be a gardener, or a bin man, they get plenty of fresh air. My friend Tom's a postie, but it's the winters that can't be a lot of fun.

Watched Magnolia last night, fantastic but slightly mental film. 3 hours, but the acting and storyline was impressive. And at the end it makes you think a little, I also felt a wee bit confused, but in general a film that makes you think about life at the end is alright by me. And I don't mean thoughts like "Why have I just spent a couple of hours of my life watching this shite?" Shawshank Redemption, there's another one. You must all see it.

From what I see of the war, things are going to plan, but more like Saddam's than Crazy Cowboy George's. So it's going to be Vietnam II then, all this 24 hour news coverage shoould start to loosen its grip soon, especially as even the BBC are admitting mistakes. But their biggest, is the world service reading out all their info on this Salam Pax guy who has been writing this blog from Baghdad, and frankly he's not Saddam's biggest fan, so the blimming Beeb have done the guy no favours and put his life at risk, and for what end? They certainly aren't going to win any journalistic awards for it. As for less than serious coverage, The Onion have come up trumps again, cutting through the world of news like a hot knife through butter. Not for the faint-hearted.

Sunday, 23 March 2003

Martin Williamson, writing on wisden.com brings up the valid point about the world cup fixture set-up, it was all a bit of a nightmare in the end, but the political decisions went some way to causing that (no offence to Kenya, who did show enough class and ability to improve their chances of joining the ranks of the Test playing countries within three years.) It's a toss up between pleasing the tv companies who give them great wads of cash, and not turning the whole competition into a circus. Let's see how the ICC handle the next one..

JUNK MAIL: "Hi Baby, Please Don't Be Upset With Me Anymor... " so says 'Cindy hgtjxwfg jsoab' whoever she/it might be. What I don't understand about all this junk mail is, that more and more of it is just gobbledigook, random letters and numbers, with the odd word thrown in to tease the reader obviously. But who do these spammers really think is actually gonna click on something that makes no sense i any language. Maybe it's like and addiction, sending out spam, setting up databases of names, where do they make their money, they must get such a tiny percentage of replies to all this junk. But then it obviously doesn't cost them much. I guess it's just annoying having to empty the junk mail so often, becuase it fills up so quick. And as for all the "here is the password you ordered for your hardcore porn site, that you've actually never been to, but we're just gonna keep sending you this from different random email addresses in the forlorn hope you might one day click on it and actually go to the dubious site..." My favourite from today's junk mail is "I'm Super Tired" It's crazy and makes me laugh.

CRICKET WORLD CUP FINAL: A bit of a one sided final, well very obviously, India were no match whatsoever for the most resourceful, confident, ruthless and composed side to grace a cricket field in modern times. Australia are super-good (see above). Even without Warne and Gillespie, they have looked unbeatable, they even let a few teams have a head start, like England and New Zealand, just to give themselves a challenge. Now that's class. As for me, I had my first indoor net of the winter, with Peterborough Town CC, and it went alright, managed to bowl straight, and more surpirsingly, only got bowled once whilst batting, now that is something to be proud of.

Friday, 21 March 2003

Nearly home time at work, been a more eventful afternoon than I had envisaged, what with the boss being off galavanting and buying curtains (that's what she told me). But one last job, and I'm home free for 2 whole days, except I'm in tomorrow for an hour of war story updating, double-time though, so the carnage of Iraq will seem slightly more pallatable. How sad am I.

The weather is pretty marvelous outside my window, Peterborough Cathedral is bathed in late afternoon, early evening sunshine, and frankly, I reckon it's gonna be bastard hot and sticky in the office during high summer. Mustn't complain i suppose. Been so busy, I haven't even got around to eating my orange, and being left with pithy citrus smelling fingers for a couple of days. Nice.

Thursday, 20 March 2003

You have to say, that the BBC are surely the finest broadcasting organisation in the world, more respected anywhere. I am so jealous of my fellow Warrington graduate Jon Kelly, who is lucky enough to be a tv researcher. But when you think all that they provide, digitally and terrestrially. Surely no other broadcaster creates as much origianl content, that is of a reasonable standard as them.

Yes, they are more concerned about the profit and popularity of the main channels, than they were or maybe they should be under their public service agreement, but in the current media environment, no one can survive without giving in a little to the narrow-minded lowest common-denominator product that saturates our lives.

Beeb, I think your alright. I also think my connection may have gone again, and that my RealOne player may have crashed, oh the joys of IT. At least I can't feel my sore throat, thankyou Tesco's own brand HOT salsa.

Tuesday, 18 March 2003

WAR: So it's 48 hours for maddas Hussein to get out of dodge, or Crazy Cowboy George is comin for ya, yee-ha! But 'don't burn the oil' asks George, otherwise, it's pretty much a waste of time, he'll just go back to playing with his rather non-responsive dogs on the White House lawn.

NET: On a lighter note, my BT Openworld connection is offically taking the mick out of me. I don't remember the last time I was on the internet for any length of time without losing my connection several times. It is a joke, I'm gonna phone BT and give it to em straight. It might not be their connection, it might be the local phone line, I would just like to get my moneys-worth out of my �16 a month 'anytime (well 150 hours tops)' deal.

PILFER: Walked home from the dentists yesterday, my first check-up for a while, and boy do I feel dumb for not going while still a fully fledged 'easy-life student'. Got some shopping from the Tesco's in the city centre, then passed through Virgin, actually the tractor beams sucked me in, you understand don't you?! Anyway, this shifty looking guy blatantly stole a dvd, I heard something snap, like, say the plastic case, and then he obviously had something under his arm as he swiftly made his way out the door. Constantly looking around. Now after 12 years in a supermarket, I've seen a few shop-lifters, and there is a stereotype, and boy did he fit the bill, but he obviously timed it well, as there were no burly security staff around. Anyway, brekkers for me, then shower and work...catch you later

Thursday, 13 March 2003

Well, I really enjoyed the Red Hot Chili's gig in Manchester last night. Will write a proper review tomorrow. But have been reading about Zimbabwe's cricketing troubles on the BBC Cricket World Cup site.

Frankly it is disgusting the whole political set-up that that maniac Mugabe has control of, he is running that country into the ground, because he is to stubborn to admit he is wrong, and stand aside and let the the people of Zimbabwe have a chance of a fair economic and political system. Just a sad old dictator who is afraid to relinquish the stranglehold of power that he has built up with an iron fist, crushing any who doubt his word. It turn my stomach to think of the poepl suffering i that country.

To think Tony Blair has painted himself into a worrying corner over Iraq, yet in general the standard of life in Britain is far better than the life Zimbabweans must be living. Maybe the US and Crazy George W. aren't so bothered about Zimbabwe's plight because they aren't a possible terrorist threat, and they don't have any commodity of use to the Americans, but frankly the way the country is run seems quite similar. I truly hope both countries are set free in a way that costs the least human life.

On a happy note, I'm on holiday for few days, visitng my girlfriend at Uni in grey old Warrington.

MUSIC :: On a musical note (tee hee hee) Hot Hot Heat's 'Bandages' is currently playing in my head, very catchy. Although there does seem to be a lot of similar punky/indie/rock bands sprouting up, is this the beginning of overkill again by the record companies? Find a great new sound, well a variation on a couple of old ones, and then flog it to death? Well done, aren't you all the centre of the creative universe, and/or in it for the cash!

Sunday, 9 March 2003

Hey readeres, today's interesting junkmail porn subject is..."Stay free at the sex hotel " How could I refuse? Quite easily, but some people must reply to this stuff to make it worthwhile sending out all this crap.

I must say I do enjoy having to constantly redial my internet connection after every couple of pages I visit, it really does enhance my use of the brilliant world wide web connection that BT Openworld have generously provided me with...

But on a brighter note, I'll be seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Wednesday night at the MEN Arena in Manchester with my girl Becx. Really looking forward to seeing a truly cool rock and roll band. Am as we speak (ok I'm typing and your reading) I'm listening to 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik', on my way through all their last four albums. You got to get in the mood?

Weather wsa nice today, so I took advantage and took a leisurely afternoon stroll down by the river bank. Only thing missing was some company, but hey ho, make the most of what life gives you and all that. You can't get down just becuase everything isn't going your way, else, you'll never enjoy any little moments in your day that are worth smiling about. There's my two-penneth for the day. Gonna watch Gladiator now, and I'm talking Maximus and not testosterone fulled beefcakes playing chase the puny mortal up that climbing wall and throw him off.

Saturday, 8 March 2003

Hello, sorry I've not been keeping up with Dan's blog. Today's spam email title I found most ridiculous is..."You'll Want To Parade It To Everyone " Wonder what that can mean?! Anyway, the weather is not very appealing outside, but I can't spend my whole Saturday indoors? Well I could, and after the postman decided to deliver a parcel at 7.05 this morning, I'm a little out of it still. Bless him for being so early, maybe he's just very, very keen.

WAR?: George Bush? He should start up the 'United Nation' just for America, as that's the only country who he's interested in. Fair enough you say, well, the 'United Nations' thinks of he world more as a community, and maybe this point is lost on George, international law doens't look kindly on nations starting wars with other nations unless its a) slef defense, or b) voted for by the UN('s) in order to prevent an attack. So Geoge and Colon Powell might just want to hold their horses a while.

MAD: Now don't get me wrong Saddam is also a mad, bad man who shouldn't be running a paper shop, let alone a country, but he's not going anywhere, and I can't see him getting away with much while there's 100's of 1,000's of troops baying at his borders. But let's see what the outcome is, and who its really for the benefit of? Millions of American car users, who need that oil so they can drive 5 minutes to the shop? Who can say...

Thursday, 6 March 2003

Tuesday, 4 March 2003

This is cool, while I'm at work I can quickly post some thoughts. Well, lets hope the rain holds off, so that England have a chance in the cricket, that's my main hope for the day. And that the weather brightens up outside my window, dull grey is not a colour that makes me feel enthusiastic about work...

Closing thoughts

Richard Kendall 2003-2009Disclaimer: The views expressed on richardkendall.blogspot.com are those of me, Richard Kendall and not of my employers. And I'm not responsible for the content of external sites and cannot guarantee that every link will work!